Welcome

Rarity4u is a premier and trusted on-line resource to find, collect, buy and sell antiques, collectibles and other old, rare and beautiful items. Our carefully selected items range from the Georgian, Victorian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods through to Contemporary and includes furniture, jewellery, toys Asian antiques and so much more.

If you are looking for a dealer, appraiser, flea market, show, auction or information, then look no further. By using our extensive links and search facilities you should be able to find that for which you search.

We enjoy finding nice things with character, age or pleasant design, and our expanding customer base indicates our efforts are appreciated, so journey through distance and time from the comfort of your own home, and bring back the treasures from another land and from another era.

Enjoy! 😀😀😀

Art Nouveau

A new, short lived and excessive style, that thrived between circa 1890 – 1914. The style is characterised by curving, swirling, organic, naturalistic designs, particularly, the whiplash motif and long-haired sensual women. Louis Comfort Tiffany made archetypal Art Nouveau pieces. The name derives from a shop opened by Bing in Paris in 1895. Known as “Stile Liberty”. In Germany and Scandinavia, Art Nouveau is known as “Jugendstil” and “Secession” in Austria.

Art Deco

The first truly modern style, which made full use of mechanised production and new materials. The name derives from the first major exhibition of decorative arts held after the First World War in 1925 L’Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Inustriels Modernes, in Paris, France. The style was popular from around 1920’s until 1940’s. Geometric lines and angles, with very few curves, characterize Art Deco pieces. This art movement eventually became bolder and evolved into Art Moderne.

Auction

Victorious Roman armies used to divide their loot, and slaves, by auction. In Britain the first record of auctioneering comes only at the end of the 1400’s, with an official of Henry VII’s court known as the King’s Over-Roper. To rope was to shout out for sale and the word survives in Scotland and northern England where sales may be called ’roups’. After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, auctions became common in London, with Covent Garden as the centre of trade. Amongst the oldest British firms to have survived are Sotherby’s which stems from Baker’s book sales beginning in 1744, and Christies, founded in 1766. Dreweatt Neate of Newbury also has its origins in the 1760’s. Bonhams, which in part is still a family run firm, and Phillips, founded by James Christie’s sales clerk, followed at the end of the 1700’s.